FLY ME WITH BALLOONS

 Welcome to the second month of 2023 when our shopping carts have ten-dollar gallons of orange juice and Chinese balloons are over Montana and Ashville, North Carolina, which as we here all know, is mostly populated with retired attorneys, judges, and cops from Miami. 

Kiev, Ukraine has Russian missiles and Iranian drones. We have Chinese balloons. Things could be worse. 

If you see one of these call NORAD or the Pentagon or Rep George Santos immediately! 

The best way to retaliate? IOHO send over the Miami Dade County Youth Fair. A few servings of fried Oreos and the People's Army couldn't storm Paris much less Taiwan. 

 A BIG FRIDAY NG 

The blog and our email was flooded yesterday alerting us to a shocking Not Guilty in a first-degree murder case before Judge De La O (on a Friday of all days to boot).  PDs Annmarie Harris and Yanelis Zamora notched the win for a client whose trial apparently swirled with mysterious rumors of santeria and black magic.  Two experienced prosecutors took the loss which was not expected in a case in which there was a videotaped confession. 

This is your first weekend without NFL football since late August. How are you holding up? 

MUCH ADO

 The other day, wrapping up perhaps our last trial of the year, the judge said she wanted to get through jury instructions "without much ado."

We started us thinking, what exactly is "ado?"

We are in that kind of mood. 

Is it possible that the Ferrero Roche chocolates have an entire business based on harried people buying last minute holiday gifts for the receptionist whose name they do not even know? 

Another non-activist/activist court- this time the Eighth Circuit, shut down a federal program for dubious reasons. Eight states sued the federal government over the Loan Forgiveness Program. The Eighth Circuit granted an injunction and shut down the entire program- because Missouri claimed that the loan forgiveness might cause the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority to miss payments to Missouri. We always thought injunctions were narrowly tailored and rarely given. Now students in Alaska and Maine and Florida are stymied because the Show Me State has alleged a possible injury. 

As our Constitutional Law Professor always said- it's jurisprudence by "whose ox is gored." 

The Supreme Court upheld the stay and set arguments for February 2023 on an expedited basis. 

This we love: 

People in China are being arrested for protesting the country's covid lockdown policy. In response, students are protesting by holding up blank sheets of paper. 

It is brilliant. By saying nothing, they are saying everything.  

They are calling it The Blank Paper Revolution. 

As Bruce Springsteen sings- "can't start a fire without a spark..."